bell pepper, finely diced
1
1/4
bird’s eye chili, minced
1/4
1 tsp.
red wine vinegar
5 mL
salt
Place the freshest, most flavourful tomatoes you can find (sniff them at the core, and if they smell more like fridge than tomato, pass on them) in the bowl of a kitchen mixer. Use the paddle attachment on a low speed until the tomatoes are pulped. Be patient. This may take ten minutes. Pour the mixture into the ricer with a bowl placed underneath. The liquid is what we’ll use for gazpacho, but reserve the skins. You can always toss those into a sauce.
Add the remaining ingredients to the tomato liquid. Season to taste. Store at room temperature and serve the same day.
Serves four.
Tomato Sandwiches
You may think a tomato sandwich too lowly to serve to guests. But so long as it’s not the main course, it will be welcome. Serve it with the soup as a representation of an ingredient in its prime.
Here are some tips for making it great.
Making your own mayonnaise will elevate the dish in both taste and stature. When I was a kid, we didn’t really keep mayo in our house, so I didn’t discover the glory of a tomato sandwich until I was older. Still, I grew up with challah and prefer it for most of my sandwiches. A sourdough also will be good, as long as it’s a bread with more body and less crust.
Toast the bread. Spread a little mustard on the top slice and lots of tarragon mayonnaise on the bottom. Instead of thin layers of tomatoes (which will result in the tomato squeezing out of the sandwich), slice them as thick as the bread and lay them out without overlapping. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve.
For the tarragon mayonnaise
1
egg yolk
1
1 tsp.
Dijon mustard
5 mL
1/2 tsp.
lemon juice
2.5 mL
1 1/2 cups
olive oil
375 mL
salt to taste
1 bunch
tarragon leaves
1 bunch
1/2 tsp.
lime juice
2.5 mL
Place the egg yolk, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl with a splash of water. Whisk and slowly drizzle 1 cup (250 mL) of olive oil in as thin a stream as possible. When it emulsifies into a glossy, thick mayo, transfer it to a bowl and season to taste with salt.
In a blender, purée the tarragon with the remaining oil and lime juice. Season with salt and fold into the mayo.
It’ll keep in the fridge for a week. Use cling wrap inside the container to prevent discolouration.
If the mayo breaks (separates and stays thin), start with another yolk, slowly adding the first broken batch back into the mix.
Y ou have successfully passed those critical first fifteen minutes. Your guests have been lulled into a state of relaxation, your gentle coaxing with wine and conversation allowing them to believe that this is all just happening without some greater power steering its course. But when the time comes to serve food, you must assert your authority as the warden of this food prison. In addition to expressing confidence — for who will follow a leader who does not believe in himself or herself? — it is important to not be over-prepared or under-prepared. Also, do not use the term “food prison” at the dinner table. (Or in a book about dinner parties).
GETTING STARTED
Once I was at a dinner where all the salads were plated in advance — shriveled by the time the guests were seated. That’s over-prepared. For a cold appetizer, you should have all your ingredients prepped, but not assembled. At another dinner, the guests were seated and then told that the soup would take just a while to warm up. Soup, as opposed to a slice of seared foie gras or a poached egg, is a pretty forgiving hot appetizer. If your first course is soup, bring it to a boil, cover it and turn off the heat, and then tell people dinner’s ready. These are details to have considered in the planning stage.
Both of these seem like basic “shoes go over socks, not the other way around” common sense. But some people get flustered around food and lose their sense of how long things take. If you need a hand in cooking or plating, or just want to accept
1
1/4
bird’s eye chili, minced
1/4
1 tsp.
red wine vinegar
5 mL
salt
Place the freshest, most flavourful tomatoes you can find (sniff them at the core, and if they smell more like fridge than tomato, pass on them) in the bowl of a kitchen mixer. Use the paddle attachment on a low speed until the tomatoes are pulped. Be patient. This may take ten minutes. Pour the mixture into the ricer with a bowl placed underneath. The liquid is what we’ll use for gazpacho, but reserve the skins. You can always toss those into a sauce.
Add the remaining ingredients to the tomato liquid. Season to taste. Store at room temperature and serve the same day.
Serves four.
Tomato Sandwiches
You may think a tomato sandwich too lowly to serve to guests. But so long as it’s not the main course, it will be welcome. Serve it with the soup as a representation of an ingredient in its prime.
Here are some tips for making it great.
Making your own mayonnaise will elevate the dish in both taste and stature. When I was a kid, we didn’t really keep mayo in our house, so I didn’t discover the glory of a tomato sandwich until I was older. Still, I grew up with challah and prefer it for most of my sandwiches. A sourdough also will be good, as long as it’s a bread with more body and less crust.
Toast the bread. Spread a little mustard on the top slice and lots of tarragon mayonnaise on the bottom. Instead of thin layers of tomatoes (which will result in the tomato squeezing out of the sandwich), slice them as thick as the bread and lay them out without overlapping. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve.
For the tarragon mayonnaise
1
egg yolk
1
1 tsp.
Dijon mustard
5 mL
1/2 tsp.
lemon juice
2.5 mL
1 1/2 cups
olive oil
375 mL
salt to taste
1 bunch
tarragon leaves
1 bunch
1/2 tsp.
lime juice
2.5 mL
Place the egg yolk, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl with a splash of water. Whisk and slowly drizzle 1 cup (250 mL) of olive oil in as thin a stream as possible. When it emulsifies into a glossy, thick mayo, transfer it to a bowl and season to taste with salt.
In a blender, purée the tarragon with the remaining oil and lime juice. Season with salt and fold into the mayo.
It’ll keep in the fridge for a week. Use cling wrap inside the container to prevent discolouration.
If the mayo breaks (separates and stays thin), start with another yolk, slowly adding the first broken batch back into the mix.
Y ou have successfully passed those critical first fifteen minutes. Your guests have been lulled into a state of relaxation, your gentle coaxing with wine and conversation allowing them to believe that this is all just happening without some greater power steering its course. But when the time comes to serve food, you must assert your authority as the warden of this food prison. In addition to expressing confidence — for who will follow a leader who does not believe in himself or herself? — it is important to not be over-prepared or under-prepared. Also, do not use the term “food prison” at the dinner table. (Or in a book about dinner parties).
GETTING STARTED
Once I was at a dinner where all the salads were plated in advance — shriveled by the time the guests were seated. That’s over-prepared. For a cold appetizer, you should have all your ingredients prepped, but not assembled. At another dinner, the guests were seated and then told that the soup would take just a while to warm up. Soup, as opposed to a slice of seared foie gras or a poached egg, is a pretty forgiving hot appetizer. If your first course is soup, bring it to a boil, cover it and turn off the heat, and then tell people dinner’s ready. These are details to have considered in the planning stage.
Both of these seem like basic “shoes go over socks, not the other way around” common sense. But some people get flustered around food and lose their sense of how long things take. If you need a hand in cooking or plating, or just want to accept
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